PEACH PERSPECTIVE - Bench Accounting’s Big Mistake: A Wake-Up Call for Business Owners
- Mar 12, 2025
- 7 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
What happens when a bookkeeping company prioritizes automation over expertise, lacks a structured process, and fails to invest in skilled professionals? Bench Accounting’s closure is a clear warning: cutting corners in these areas can lead to irreparable damage.
By breaking down what went wrong at Bench, we highlight why Peach BPO delivers a more reliable, expert-driven approach – one that businesses can trust for accurate, world-class bookkeeping.
The Cracks Beneath the Surface: Why Couldn't Bench Keep It Together?
Bench Accounting, founded in 2012, quickly grew to become a full-service bookkeeping and accounting provider for small businesses. Their value proposition combined AI-powered tools with human bookkeepers, promising to offer bookkeeping at a fraction of the cost of traditional services.
By 2021, Bench had raised $60 million in funding and served over 35,000 small businesses across the U.S.
On paper, it seemed like they were doing everything right—so, what went wrong?
1. Over-Automated and Under-Resourced: A Costly Miscalculation
In an attempt to scale operations and meet growing demand, Bench turned to automation, hoping to streamline its processes and reduce overhead costs. Unfortunately, automation alone lacks the nuanced judgment and problem-solving abilities of a trained bookkeeper. It doesn’t possess the cognitive ability to detect subtle discrepancies or recognize patterns that may be a sign of a larger issue.Skilled professionals are needed to bridge this gap. Without a balance of both technology and human expertise, mistakes—such as data discrepancies, missed deadlines, and inaccurate reports—are more likely to occur.
Impact: For one particular client, Bench’s automation-driven approach led to recurring errors in financial reports. Categorization mistakes were consistently overlooked, and these errors were only addressed when the client manually intervened. The result was mounting frustration, as the client found themselves doing much of the work that they had hoped to outsource.
When businesses seek bookkeeping solutions, they don’t just want accuracy; they need the assurance that their financial records are being thoughtfully reviewed and understood. In the absence of this, automation can undermine the very thing it was meant to improve: trust and reliability.
“I started with them in October. The categorization is shoddy. I'm not a bookkeeper, but I did mine in Quickbooks from the time I founded my company until this past October. I kept getting ads and eventually decided I had the money to outsource it and I liked their marketing and the platform seemed easy to use.
I've been disappointed by their initial categorizations. I corrected many of them, but the next month they were categorized the same way again. Annoying and a huge time waste for me to train and re-train their team. Defeats the purpose.” https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/1hnic2y/benchco_official_shut_down/
“If you check enough reviews online you will find that Bench is flashy on the surface, but has major issues stemming from staff turnover, a lack of timely communication, and misrepresentation of proposed solutions. My company worked with Bench for one year and onboarding was virtually non-existent.
They did not do a video call for introductions and check-ins with your accounting person are inconsistent and normally by phone rather than being able to schedule a virtual meeting. In my experience, our direct bookkeeper was unhelpful, as they frequently had to go back to some unknown team to get an answer to my questions, which would often take days or weeks to get a response.” https://www.google.com/search?q=bench+accounting&rlz=1C5CHFA_enPH1004PH1004&oq=bench+accounting&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgAEEUYOxiABDIJCAAQRRg7GIAEMgYIARBFGDsyBwgCEAAYgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyBwgEEAAYgAQyBggFEEUYPDIGCAYQRRg8MgYIBxBFGD3SAQgzOTA3ajFqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x5486717e504f3dd5:0xf7c8d5f2104a3897,1,,,,
The Peach BPO Difference - System
Technology should never be used just for the sake of cutting costs or speeding up a process. Over the years, Peach BPO has taken great care in developing and refining our own proprietary system, ensuring it does more than just automate tasks. It’s built to complement and strengthen the skills of our team, enabling them to perform at their highest level while ensuring accuracy and efficiency at every step.
We develop each tool with specific goals in mind, aligning perfectly with our clients’ needs. They come with built-in guardrails that act as a safety net, providing an extra layer of protection that minimizes errors and reinforces our commitment to quality.
2. Misunderstanding Bookkeeping Skills: It’s a Specialized Skill, and Bench Missed That
Bookkeeping is a complex, highly specialized skill that demands attention to detail and dedication. Bench, however, underestimated the level of expertise required for this role. They hired individuals without properly evaluating their qualifications and failed to provide adequate training, leading to inefficiencies that burdened the more experienced employees. This neglect of the bookkeeping profession, treating it as an entry-level task, ultimately affected both the team and the clients they served.
Impact: Skilled employees were overburdened and left to manage far more work than was sustainable. The lack of respect for the bookkeeping profession led to a breakdown in service quality, employee morale, and client satisfaction.
“They hired university students with no accounting background or experience to do cash-based bookkeeping. So, they take your bank and credit card statements, parse out the transactions, and categorize them. Then, the client has to review and make sure they categorized them correctly. The issues were:
1) very few professional accountants training staff or reviewing the work, resulting in low quality bookkeeping (as others have noticed). Plus, toxic culture meant high turnover, which did not help with quality.
2) not at all scaleable; costs increase proportionally with sales, so if it's not profitable in early stages it will never be. There's just no opportunities for economies of scale without actually using technology to automate.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/1hoayif/bench_accounting_shut_down_due_to_bankruptcy/
“I had used Bench since about 2019, I was happy with them until 2023. All of a sudden I was getting a new book keeper every other month. Then in March of 2024, their tax service (which I used) announced they were filing extensions for EVERY Bench user, whether you had your paperwork in or not.
I had turned everything in but my book keepers could not get my 2023 business paperwork wrapped up and finalized.
Long story short they did not get my 2023 books closed until June! and my taxes did not get filed until August!”
https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1hnqv0q/attention_business_owners_using_benchco/
“They used to be better in the beginning but as time has gone they have gotten worse. Initially they would take initiative with the books but now they don't. Moreover there seems to be a constant turnover. By the time a bookkeeper gets to know our books a bit they are gone. Unfortunate because I really want them to be good but they are just not up to par anymore. Will likely be looking for other services. Could also be that we have outgrown them but I doubt it. The AI svc they have incorporated adds extra work by the way and is only 25% accurate.”
The Peach BPO Difference - Service
Bookkeeping requires dedication, meticulous attention to detail, and critical thinking, but it also involves a strong grasp of financial patterns and the ability to adapt to unique client needs. These qualities aren’t easy to come by, and we don’t expect our team members to possess all from the start of their Peach BPO journey. What we do expect is a willingness to grow, learn, and evolve.
That’s why we invest in training, mentorship, and continuous development to help our bookkeepers develop these essential skills. Through this process, they gain a deeper understanding of the principles behind bookkeeping, helping them to deliver exceptional service to our clients.
Our ABC structure, which divides roles between Assistant Bookkeepers, Bookkeepers, and Custodial Bookkeepers, supports this developmental journey. As our team members grow in their expertise, they contribute even more value to our clients, ensuring every task is executed with precision and care.
3. Poorly-Designed Standard Processes: Accuracy Became an Afterthought
Without a standardized approach to quality control, Bench’s service delivery was inconsistent at best. This lack of structure meant there were no reliable safeguards in place to catch errors early, and the absence of a stable system to monitor progress or address mistakes only added to the uncertainty. Clients found themselves repeatedly reviewing and fixing work that should have been accurate from the start, and had to chase overdue tasks, resulting in a frustrating and time-consuming experience.
Impact: Bench’s clients were often left wondering whether their work would be completed correctly or on time. This lack of clarity and reliability undermined the trust essential for any outsourced service, making it difficult for clients to rely on the service to meet their needs consistently.
“I gave Bench every opportunity to make things right. Over two years of working with them, I experienced:
Multiple errors in bookkeeping that caused serious repercussions.
Delays that led to IRS penalties.
A pattern of taking responsibility for mistakes, issuing refunds, but failing to actually improve.
For anyone considering Bench, save yourself the stress and expense. There are better, more affordable options out there that actually deliver on their promises. Bench may have flashy marketing, but their service does not match the hype.”
“I would give zero starts if I could. The service is horrible. There is nothing automated about this.You literally have to send every report and statement manually. Just to hear back in two or three business days they need something else. Also you have to reconnect your accounts every week with their system. Which, I do not understand for what since they manually ask you for each statement regardless. They charge way too much and nothing is ever on time. Turn around is so slow.”
The Peach BPO Difference - Certification
We rigorously review every client’s financial data to ensure accuracy at every level. Our multi-layered quality assurance process goes beyond error detection; it builds a foundation of trust and reliability.
Peach BPO’s commitment to quality is further strengthened by our ongoing ISO 9001 certification journey. It holds us to international standards, ensuring that we are always assessing our methods, enhancing our practices, and staying accountable to our clients. We embrace this continuous evolution as part of our dedication to going the extra mile, never resting on our laurels.
In doing so, we give our clients the confidence and clarity to make strategic, data-driven business decisions.
Peach BPO Gets It Right!
There’s no magic formula for great bookkeeping—it takes careful attention, structured processes, and a commitment to always innovating.
Peach BPO invests in training, technology, and multi-layered quality assurance to ensure that accuracy isn’t left to chance. Our proprietary tools act as a safeguard, but it’s our team’s critical thinking and attention to detail that make the difference.
Because when businesses can trust their numbers, they can trust their decisions. And with that trust, they gain the clarity and confidence to grow and succeed! That’s why we do what we do.
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